Historians recognize Bartolommeo Cristofori as having invented the piano during the early 1700's. However, use of a finger keyboard which functions to create sounds, dates back to approximately the year 1350 when such a keyboard was added to an instrument called the psaltery. The instrument resulting from the addition of the keyboard to the psaltery became known as the harpsichord. The keyboard used throughout history has remained virtually unchanged to modern times. Today, modern pianos, harpsichords, and even technology's most cutting edge electronic instruments employ virtually the same keyboard that was developed in the 1300's.
The playing of music on a keyboard instrument by a subject human being requires the subject to perform numerous simultaneous motor-skills and thought processes, not the least of which is the proper striking of the various keys at the proper time(s), in the proper sequence and rhythms. Additionally, the timing, speed, pressure and velocity by which certain keys are struck is also an integral component in the process. The process of playing a keyboard instrument also requires the ability to read the printed musical ‘grand-staff,’ recognizing which notes on the staffs correspond with the proper keys on the keyboard and the order by which each key is struck, and which fingers should be used to strike each key. All of these components are a learned skill which, historically, has required that the subject learn each facet separately, until eventually, the subject is able to put each skill together in concert, through repetitive practicing, hopefully resulting in the subject playing the keyboard and creating music.
The learning process could be greatly abbreviated if the subject had use of an apparatus by which the motor-skill component of the learning process could be assisted by means of the apparatus mechanically ‘teaching’ each of the subject's 10 fingers which keys to strike, in the proper sequence and timing by the apparatus manipulating the subject's fingers directly on the keyboard. Furthermore, the ability to automatically associate the notes on the printed staff with the corresponding keys on the keyboard in concert with the mechanical manipulating of the subject's fingers would also abbreviate the learning time of that component of the learning process. Recently, electrical devices have been used in training a subject to move in a certain way. Some of these devices are used in rehabilitation therapy to assist in redeveloping lost nerve and muscle damage.
Some of these medical devices apply force to an appendage for exercise while other devices may detect movement and measure the force being generated by the patient. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,555 to Kramer et al. There are nerve stimulation devices which apply a non-injurious electrical pulse to the patient, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,881 to Pedigo et al.
Some computer simulations use gloves for the user-machine interface and detect finger movement and force. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,355 to Koch.
Other electrical devices are worn on the hands and give a tone or note in response to finger movement, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,848 to Suzuki and U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,516 to Giannini.
Newcomer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,981, discloses a finger placement sensor for stringed instruments for instructional purposes. The sensors are integrated with a visual and aural representation of the sound produced by the sensor position.
What is needed in the art is a man-machine interface that will visually show the proper position of the subject's hands as it relates to printed music on the grand staff, and which will electrically stimulate and manipulate the subject's hands and fingers to indicate and aid the proper finger movement necessary to strike the proper keys, at the exact proper times, in the proper sequence and rhythm, and using the proper velocity, speed and timing to produce music denoted by printed music or other music source.